Republicans stepped up calls Sunday for the release of an FBI affidavit showing justification for seizing documents at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home amid reports of increased threats against federal law enforcement personnel. A search warrant released last week after the unprecedented search showed that Mr. Trump had 11 sets of classified documents in his home and that the Justice Department had probable cause to conduct the search based on possible violations of the Espionage Act. Republicans are seeking the release of more detailed information that convinced a federal judge to issue the search warrant, which may show sources of information and details about the nature of the documents and other classified information. Unsealing such affidavits is highly unusual and would require approval from a federal judge. “I think the release of the affidavit would help, at least it would confirm that there was justification for this raid,” Republican Sen. Mike Rounds told NBC. Meet the press. “The Justice Department will have to ‘show that this was not just a fishing expedition, that they had proper cause to go in and do this, that they exhausted all other means,’” Mr. Rounds said. “And if they can’t do that, then we’ve got a serious problem on our hands.” Separately on Sunday, the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, led by Democrat Mark Warner and Republican Marco Rubio, asked the Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to provide the seized documents on a classified basis. A spokesman for the committee, which is charged with overseeing the handling of classified information, said the two senators also requested “an assessment of potential risks to national security” as a result of possible mishandling of the records. Representative Mike Turner, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, told CNN on Sunday that the Biden administration should provide more details about what led to the investigation. “Congress is saying, ‘Show us. Do we want to know what the FBI told them? What did they find?’ said Mr. Turner. The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment on the FBI affidavit. The calls from Republicans came amid reports that the FBI and Department of Homeland Security warned of increased threats to law enforcement coming from social media platforms after the Mar-a-Lago investigation. The FBI said in a statement that it is always concerned about threats against law enforcement and works with other agencies to assess and respond to such threats, “which are reprehensible and dangerous.” Republican Representative Brian Fitzpatrick, a former FBI agent and prosecutor from Pennsylvania, said he was concerned about the safety of federal law enforcement officers amid such threats, adding that “everyone should ask for calm.” he told CBS Face the Nation that the search of Mr. Trump’s home “was an unprecedented action that must be supported by unprecedented justification,” and the probable cause affidavit would show whether that standard was met — even if it had only been shown to lawmakers in a classified briefing. “I have encouraged all my colleagues on the left and the right to reserve judgment and not preempt because we do not know what this document contains. It will answer a lot of questions.” Democrats on Sunday did not echo calls to release the affidavit. Instead, Representative Adam Schiff, the California Democrat who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, said he was seeking an assessment of the potential damage to US national security from Mr Trump’s possession of the classified documents, along with an update information. The “Top Secret” documents and “Sensitive Departmental Information” could cause “extremely serious damage to national security” if disclosed, Schiff told CBS. “So the fact that they were in an unsecured place kept with nothing more than a padlock or whatever security they had in a hotel is deeply troubling,” Mr Schiff said. Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told NBC that she could not judge whether the Justice Department should indict Mr. Trump on criminal charges. “That will be up to the Justice Department to decide what happened here, why it happened and whether it rises to the level of a crime,” Ms. Klobuchar said. The Morning Update and Afternoon Update newsletters are written by Globe editors, giving you a concise summary of the day’s most important headlines. Sign up today.
